Matt Damon discusses possibility of ‘Rounders’ sequel, says “…if we can make it happen”

Washington [US], August 1 (ANI): ‘Rounders’, a 1998 American drama film starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton is all about the underground world of high-stakes poker. It is among the favourite projects of Damon and he would love to have its sequel as per The Hollywood Reporter.

Damon appeared as a guest on The Rich Eisen Show, when the presenter enquired about the possibility of sequels to his own films. Damon stated that Actors Equity, the production firm he co-founded with Ben Affleck, is behind the next film ‘The Accountant 2’, which stars Affleck. However, when it comes to his own ideas, Damon expressed a desire to revisit filmmaker John Dahl’s ‘Rounders’, which focused on underground, high-stakes poker tournaments and starred Edward Norton, John Turturro, John Malkovich, and Gretchen Mol.

“The one that we’ve been talking about for years — and I just saw Edward Norton a few weeks ago, and all of us want to do it — is a second ‘Rounders’ movie,” Damon said. “Because so much has happened in that poker world in the last 25 years, it would be fun to catch up with those guys,” he added.

Unfortunately, the difficulty appears to be related to the movie’s rights, which were issued on September 11, 1998, by Miramax Films.

“You’ve got to figure out the chain of title and who owns it, and everybody’s got their hand in the pot,” the star said. “So we’ve got to figure out a way to make a deal that makes sense for everybody, particularly the people who are going to make the movie because at Artists Equity, that’s who we care about, are the cast and crew.

We’re trying to figure that out because I think we’d all like to do that.”

Damon mentioned a conversation with screenwriters David Levien and Brian Koppelman, who later created the Showtime series ‘Billions’, about a potential sequel.

“What they had 10 years ago, I thought, was fantastic, and I’m sure they could augment and roll with the times and update it to where we are today and make something great,” he continued.

Damon, who is currently promoting his project ‘The Instigators’ shared that, although ‘Rounders’ did not perform so well at the box office, it has more recently cultivated a devoted fan base.

“That’s one of those movies that, it came out and didn’t do well,” he said. “When it came out, it kind of bombed, and then it got discovered by people later. When that happens, people feel a sense of ownership, like, ‘Hey, that’s my movie. I was a champion of that movie even when no one else was.’ So it feels like there’s a lot of good will behind it. But we gotta figure out if we can make it happen,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.